The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded $72,300 in grants to organizations during its December meeting, including $52,500 to organizations serving Hall County.
*$10,500 to Elachee Nature Center in Gainesville, to assist students in Title 1 schools in Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin and Madison counties attending the Nature Education and Environmental Conservation Programs for PreK-12 school children.
*$10,000 to the Eyes of Love Lighthouse Mission in Buford, a grassroots ministry that collects and distributes clothes, food and furniture to those in need in Gwinnett, Hall, Barrow counties to help them get back on their feet, to help with rent on the building used to house the mission’s inventory.
*$10,000 to the Rape Response, a Gainesville community-based non-profit that provides comprehensive services to adolescent and adult victims of sexual violence in Hall and Lumpkin Counties, to help fund aftercare and Emergency Room clothing and comfort items for victims, as well as recruitment and training for volunteer advocates.
*$7,500 to Adventure Bags, an Auburn-based nonprofit that creates comfort bags and distributes them to displaced children through local DFCS offices, domestic violence shelters, fire departments, group homes and children’s shelters in Jackson EMC’s service area to provide comfort and security in a crisis.
*$7,500 to North Georgia Interfaith Ministries, based in Dahlonega, for Jeremiah’s Place, Lumpkin County’s only transitional housing program, which assists homeless families from Lumpkin and Hall counties get back on their feet and find safe, stable housing.
*$5,000 to Rock Goodbye Angel, a Gainesville-based non-profit, to assist with its pregnancy and infant loss grief support program that covers Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin counties.
*$2,000 to Penfield Christian Homes to provide assistance for people living in one of the ten counties served by Jackson EMC to participate in the substance abuse treatment program.
Jackson EMC Foundation grants are made possible by the more than 187,072 participating cooperative members who have their monthly electric bills rounded to the next dollar amount through the Operation Round Up program. Their “spare change” has funded 1,263 grants to organizations and 353 grants to individuals, putting more than $12.8 million back into local communities since the program began in 2005.
Any individual or charitable organization in the ten counties served by Jackson EMC (Clarke, Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison and Oglethorpe) may apply for a Foundation grant by completing an application, available online at https://www.jacksonemc.com/foundation-apply or at local Jackson EMC offices. Applicants do not need to be a member of Jackson EMC.
